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Cycling in New York City

The densely packed New York City has had a love-hate relationship with bicycles since they were first invented. Narrow streets, congested avenues with stop and go traffic, swarming pedestrians, and a mixed relationship with the NYPD all make the city a difficult place to be in with a bicycle. However, congestion also impedes cars, and distances are typically short and hills few, so the city has many cyclists, ranging from the utility cycling of delivery and messenger services, cycling clubs for recreational cyclists and, increasingly, commuters using bikes for getting around the city.

History

The bicycle boom of the late 19th century hit the New York area hard, and the City of Brooklyn was especially responsive, providing excellent accommodation in Eastern Parkway, Ocean Parkway, and elsewhere. New York didn't produce as many bicycles as some other cities, so imported many from elsewhere, including Freehold, New Jersey. As a spectator sport, six-day racing was particularly popular and spurred the building of velodromes in suburban places including Washington Heights, Manhattan and Jersey City, New Jersey. The biggest races were held in city locations, most notably Madison Square Garden.

Several of the middle 20th century parkway projects of master builder Robert Moses also included bike paths. However, when more people could afford to buy motor cars and crowd the streets with them, bicycling declined and the old bikeways fell into disuse and disrepair. Late in the century, bicycling resurged.

Utility cycling

Delivery bikes are the most usual vehicle, especially for fast food deliveries over distances of a mile or two (a kilometer or three) in the crowded streets of New York. They are easier to park than motor cars that require spaces along the crowded streets, and no slower in heavy congestion. Most deliverers use old beat-up mountain bikes, with or without additions such as a lock box or a wide carrier rack for pizza. Swift and rugged bicycle messengers use narrower wheels to carry lighter loads that are going a few miles. Specialized cargo bicycles and tricycles carry modestly heavier loads.

Pedicabs became commonplace at the turn of the 21st century. They offer similar advantages to passengers travelling a mile or three, and their novelty attracts tourists including those seeking a guided tour of Central Park. However, on April 23, 2007 the New York City Council voted, over a mayoral veto, to protect the motor taxi industry from unfair competition by limiting their numbers.

Recreational

Bicycle paths connect most neighborhoods. Those in parks are Greenways, fully segregated from motor traffic. The Hudson River Greenway is so heavily used that it also requires careful separation of the bikeway from the pedestrian path. Other parts of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway are less continuously segregated. A Greenway runs through Pelham Bay Park and across the Bronx along Mosholu Parkway to Van Cortlandt Park where it connects to the South County Trailway. Others run along the north shore of Jamaica Bay, the south shores of Little Neck Bay and Flushing Bay and other attractive locations. About a hundred miles of painted lanes in streets connect to other parks and elsewhere, and the network is growing.

On three Saturdays in August 2008, a route on the East Side of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street along Lafayette Street, Park Avenue and other streets was cleared of motor traffic to allow easy non motor use, as an experiment From mid August 2008, two lanes of Broadway between 42nd Street and Herald Square were permanently transformed into a pedestrian plaza with tables, chairs and a bike path.

Some large parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park, ban or restrict motor vehicles during certain weekday hours and all weekend, to promote bicycling. Local bike shops in those neighborhoods usually offer rental bikes. The Bike and Roll company specializes in the rental business, operating in several touristic locations and offering maps and guided tours.

Several organizations, including Five Borough Bicycle Club and Bike New York, conduct escorted tours every weekend. Most are day trips conducted for no fee, while some of the larger or overnight tours require payment. New York Cycle Club and others specialize more in fitness and speed. Bicycle track races run most summer weekends in Kissena Park and elsewhere. Road races are also held, less frequently.

The New York City Department of Transportation distributes a free and annually updated official bike map through bike shops. The map shows each kind of route in a different color, and the locations and names of bike shops and points of touristic interest.

Commuting

Many New Yorkers live less than a dozen miles or twenty km from their job, and can be seen bicycle commuting over Brooklyn Bridge and along the Hudson or elsewhere when weather is good.

For mixed-mode commuting most suburban commuter rail stations provide free bicycle parking in racks, and some also have bicycle lockers for greater security. Regulations on carrying bicycles on trains vary by railroad and time of day. Bikes are allowed on New York City Subways at all hours, though rush hour crowding makes them difficult to handle. Rules against fastening bikes to subway property, including the fences around street stairs, are enforced more rigorously than those concerning the use of lampposts and other street furniture. Municipal bicycle stands, mostly of the "bike staple" form, are installed for parking in many neighborhoods. A few, including one each at the northwest ends of Pulaski Bridge and Union Square are larger, with a roof.

Transportation Alternatives promotes bicycle commuting and bicycle friendly facilities as part of a larger effort to diminish the impact of cars on urban life.

Laws and rules

A bicycle is considered to be a vehicle (with the exception that no license is required to drive one) in the State of New York and bicyclists must follow all posted traffic regulations. Bicycles must move in the direction of the flow of traffic, must use hand signals, must not wear headphones while riding, must not ride on sidewalks, and must use lights at night.

Dangers and annoyances

Doored Getting doored is one of the major hazards of cycling in the city. To be 'doored' means to collide with the door of a car that unexpectedly opens in front of the riding cyclist. Some painted bike lanes still run in the door zone and cyclists in a bike lane or not must be vigilant for motorists and passengers unaware of the law forbidding opening a car door into a traffic lane in such a way as to interfere with traffic, including bicycles. Dooring produces many minor injuries and a few broken bones and more serious injuries, and rarely a death.

Approximately a dozen cyclists are killed most years, usually by collision with a moving motor vehicle. Some fatality locations are marked by white-painted "ghost bikes" as a memorial. Traffic accidents also kill approximately 300 pedestrians per year in the city, and a similar number of people inside cars.

Activism

Critical Mass Ride and the NYPD

Critical Mass rides in New York have turned into a battle between the NYPD and bike riders on the use and nature of these group rides. In recent years, starting with the critical mass ride on 27 August 2004 during the Republican National Convention. During that ride, more than 400 riders were arrested for 'disrupting traffic' during this monthly event. The arrests, now largely thought to have been preemptive action against possible protests during the convention, spawned numerous law suits against the city and the police and several courts have since ruled that the rides themselves are legal (c.f. ). Other rides were also followed by arrests , tickets though of late the NYPD has been content to leave well alone.